Juke box jury rules in favour of Sunderland

Nissan said the decision safeguards the jobs of nearly 7,000 Sunderland workers

Nissan has given the green light to produce the next generation of its successful Juke model in Britain.

The Nissan plant at Sunderland, Britain’s biggest car factory, fought off competing claims from within the Japanese manufacturer’s group, including its Barcelona operations, and from underutilised facilities around France that are owned by Renault, its alliance partner.

Executives had intimated earlier in the summer that the decision had been on a knife-edge despite the performance of Sunderland, which has been at its 500,000 units-a-year capacity since 2011 on the back of the success of the Juke and its larger so-called crossover sibling, the Qashqai. Last year the plant made 285,000 Qashqais and 130,000 Jukes. It also makes the Note runaround and the Leaf electric car, and the…